The terms of public service are the prerogative of the public. Fundamental among those terms; public servants are accountable to the public, and to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, at least for the eight measly hours a day that we have to "trust" them with the control over our power and our resources.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

In a report on page C2 this morning, to which I can establish no link, the Journal announced APS School Board Member Kathy Korte's candidacy in the upcoming school board elections.

Korte made her announcement at a "news conference".

The Journal was invited to the presser on on APS property in the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The press conference was called because Korte was unhappy with earlier coverage in the Journal, link, which she called misogynist Kathy-bashing.

And, to announce her political aspirations and deliver her first campaign speech. That she spoke as a school board member on school board property is inappropriate. The conflict of interests could hardly be more egregious.

That nearly 100 people posted comments on the Journal article,
indicates there is substantial interest in Korte and, by logical extension, in the upcoming
school board elections.

The Journal did not ask or asked and was not
told whether Marty Esquivel and Analee Maestas intend to run for
re-election.

Esquivel shouldn't run, but he might in order
to remain in the drivers seat in oversight over his spending on his own
legal defense.

Korte is unhappy in particular because the Journal describer her as "emotional". She would argue, I suppose, that it is alright for a school board member to be "emotional". In principle I agree; in her practice thereof, perhaps not so much.

The problem is; during a meeting in secret, Korte voted in favor of, or simply went along with, the spending three quarters of a million operational dollars on fellow school board member Marty Esquivel's legal defense of his ego.

She agreed to pay Esquivel's lawyers to argue that someone (the plaintiff) who was (far less) "emotional" than Korte, during his turn at the public forum at a school board meeting, "disrupted" meetings.